


Descent

by GloriaMundi



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: cliche_bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-31
Updated: 2009-08-31
Packaged: 2017-10-06 06:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloriaMundi/pseuds/GloriaMundi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night goes on forever and it's ... he's kind of lonely, up here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Descent

Rodney McKay is far far away, in another galaxy.

Wait, no: John's there too. Isn't he? He's ... twenty thousand feet, give or take, from the ground. It's nearly night, sunset or sunrise (where's north? where the fuck is north?). There's a red glow to his right: the sun. There's a dark mass of storm clouds behind him. He doesn't recognise the constellations rising above the planet's curve. He doesn't recognise the instrumentation he's using, but it's familiar as breathing.

McKay's down there somewhere, grounded, ready to ground him. Christ, he misses ...

McKay's close enough to touch, twenty thousand feet below, a galaxy away. And all John can do is watch for his signal, wait for the signal that'll bring him down and bring him home.

_Look, of all the stupidly suicidal acts of heroism I've watched you perpetrate over the last four years, I don't think I could take it if the one that got you was my fault. Look. I was wrong, okay? Wrong wrong wrong. And you won't hear me say that very often, so how about you just wake up and take a minute to gloat?_

He can't remember how he got here. He can't remember where 'here' is. There's a lot of cloud down there, a dark fluid band of altocumulus flowing left to right. Beneath it, sometimes, he can see darkness: is it land or water? Off to the left, a tower of cumulonimbus like a city silhouetted against the clear blue night. Right, where the cushioning cloud's flowing, is red and gold. There's no moon. No light except the unfamiliar stars and the green telltales of his instruments. Fuel good; airspeed good; altitude good.

Something's wrong.

_Because yes, yes, I was wrong. Not to say anything till now. But I'll make you a deal, Shepp— John. If you just wake up I'll ... we'll talk, okay? By which I realise it'll probably be me talking and you rolling your eyes. But I want you to hear me out. I want you to know._

If he's looking for light, he'll be better off heading away from the sunrise. Easier to see a light in the darkness. Easier to see McKay signalling to him. If McKay's down there at all. If John isn't fooling himself about this, too.

Christ, McKay. He's got to see McKay again. There's something ... something he has to say, something he has to tell McKay. And okay, he doesn't know what it is, not yet, but the way that his skin flushes warm and damp means it matters.

_Hey, maybe you can hear me after all. I read somewhere about coma victims knowing what's happening around them. So, right, okay: this is me thwacking you round the head — metaphorically of course, there's far too many tubes and wires and shit — for that stunt with the jumper. And this is me scowling at you, saying ... Sheppard. John. I know you never see it coming, Colonel Oblivious, so I can't expect you to've noticed, but I ... I've ... _

The night goes on forever and it's ... he's kind of lonely, up here.

_I want there to be more than this between us._

There's a light in the darkness down there. Landing lights, signals, flickering in a message John doesn't need to read: not yet. Relief's bubbling through his veins, so vast he could choke on it. He doesn't choke. He breathes, and breathes, and begins the descent.

-end-

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Cliche_bingo:](http://cliche-bingo.livejournal.com/) Yearning / Oblivious


End file.
